Hamm

Local and federal law enforcement authorities arrested 195 suspects during a five-day hunt for Baltimore fugitives, officials announced at a news conference yesterday. Suspects included people accused of attempted murder, assault, gang members, robbery and drug and sex offenses, said Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. "The message we need to send to violent criminals is this: We know who you are, we know what you've done, and we're going to catch you before you do it again," Rosenstein said.

Baltimore police Commissioner Leonard D. Hamm yesterday tapped a 25-year veteran to be his top deputy to run the day-to-day operations of the 3,000- member force. Col. Frederick H. Bealefeld III, 44, was named deputy commissioner of operations, replacing Marcus Brown, who is leaving next month to head the Maryland Transportation Authority's police force, the department said. For the past year, Bealefeld has served as chief of the Criminal Investigation Division, overseeing 300 detectives and other staff involved in investigating cases of violence, property crime, sex offenses, missing persons and other crimes.

Minor arrests harm effort to curb crime The death of Detective Troy Lamont Chesley is a tragedy for his family and for the city that he was devoted to protecting. It is unfortunate that Baltimore Police Commissioner Leonard D. Hamm inappropriately placed the blame for Detective Chesley's death on members of the city's Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. In The Sun's article "Suspect in killing has long record" (Jan. 10), Commissioner Hamm responded to the arrest of a suspect in Detective Chesley's killing by saying that the members of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council "need to start getting serious about getting people off the street."

Baltimore's top cop and the Police Department's union president denounced yesterday a political ad from Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. that says city officers make thousands of unlawful arrests of black residents. "It's absolutely false," Police Commissioner Leonard D. Hamm said. "The men and women of this department risk their lives every single day for the betterment of this city ... and I'm simply not going to let them be put into some kind of political quagmire." Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3 President Paul M. Blair Jr. said he was equally disgusted by the radio ad that began airing Wednesday on black radio stations in the Baltimore and Washington markets and features prominent attorney William H. "Billy" Murphy Jr. "We believe we're political punching bags," Blair said.

For the second time in less than seven months, the Baltimore Police Department is investigating an alleged sex offense involving a female suspect at a district station house. Police Commissioner Leonard D. Hamm provided sketchy details about the incident last night during a news conference at police headquarters. He said the incident occurred while a 40-year-old detective interviewed a 16-year-old girl at the Southeastern District station house. The girl had an outstanding warrant on a prostitution charge.

So, you've got a beef with Baltimore police. You take your complaint to Internal Affairs, but nothing happens. So you go the next logical route: eBay. Israel Elgamil outbid competitors in an Internet charity auction so he could take his gripe straight to Charm City's top cop. With a bid of $660, he snagged the right to have happy hour with police Commissioner Leonard Hamm and State's Attorney Patricia Jessamy, who'd agreed to have drinks with the winner to benefit the Baltimore Child Abuse Center.

Shortly after he welcomed the city's newest class of officers with handshakes and pictures during a commencement ceremony yesterday, Baltimore Police Commissioner Leonard D. Hamm spoke glowingly of a recent decline in killings on the city streets those officers are to protect. On Thursday, for the first time this year, the number of homicides was smaller than at the corresponding time last year, 115 compared with 117. In late April, there had been 12 more killings than in late April 2005, and violent crime was up 13 percent.

A crowd of people who didn't know Julia Kimberly Boussari came out to pray yesterday near the place in West Baltimore where she was stabbed to death two weeks ago. At a vigil to decry a spate of recent city killings, the Rev. Willie E. Ray told the moms and their babies, the police major and the regular neighborhood folk assembled to hold hands and be still for "our sister ... and the people that were killed over the weekend." It was a violent weekend in Baltimore. There were three killings, including the shooting Saturday night of 14-year-old Raymond Revley and the shooting Friday night of Bryant C. Jones, 42, who died at his daughter's Sweet 16 birthday party.

It was lawyer Bradley L. MacFee Sr. who started the exchange of letters with a perfectly civil and concerned missive to Baltimore Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm. Poor MacFee. He must have mistaken Hamm for someone who gives a tinker's damn. OK, let me rephrase that. At one time Hamm did, indeed, give a tinker's damn, before he became commissioner for Mayor Martin O'Malley, under whom our Police Department, while reducing crime, has exponentially increased in arrogance. MacFee's March 22 letter was about a case that Sun reporter Julie Bykowicz would eventually write about in a March 27 article.

Suddenly on March 26, 2006, TIMOTHY L. HAMM, beloved son of Barbara Jones and Delmar Hamm; step-son of Donald Jones; grandson of Bertha Hamm; devoted brother of Vickie Jackson and her husband Jack and Jennifer Marsh and her husband David; step-brother of Rick Jones and Melissa Rabon; uncle of Jack, III and Kristen Jackson and David Marsh, Jr. Also survived by several aunts, uncles and cousins. A Graveside service will be held at Bel Air Memorial Gardens on Saturday at 11:30 A.M. Arrangements by E.F. Lassahn Funeral Home, P.A., 410-592-6100